Pillars
by Charon the Sabercat
Summary: It basically came down to the fact that they were both lonely kids with selfish parents. Jack was going to make sure Sally's formative years were better than his. Hints of the beginning of a romance alongside some adult humor and general childishness.
1. Chapter 1

Pillars

There is... an alarming lack of good Jack/Sally fanfiction... anywhere. I must be a horrible Googler, because I am not finding it at all. SO, time to write some. I own nothing. Since this story takes place in the past, there will need to be a few original characters for the sake of the plot. Feel free to let me know if one's getting away from me, but I'll try my best.

* * *

Dr. Finklestein laid a heavy sheet over his latest creation, waiting for the electricity to restart her heart, just as the doorbell rang. He smiled to himself; the timing of the Skellington family could not have been better. He could simply lock down the main laboratory while he displayed his latest fog potions to Queen Mallory. Wheeling himself out into the stairwell, Finklestein shut the lab door behind him. "The door is open!"

The front door opened with a resounding creak that filled the observatory instantly. Mallory Skellington, followed as always by her worthless son, stepped into the hallway with confidence and poise. Her worthless son strode in behind her, walking far too proudly for someone who had accomplished as little as he. Hiding his disgust as best he could, Dr .Finklestein began to descend the ramp to meet his queen. "Good evening, m'lady! Terrible night we're having, isn't it?"

"It will be soon, Doctor. We'll need your potions for that." Mallory made no move to meet the Doctor, awaiting his approach impatiently. Jack stirred behind her, twiddling his fingers and crossing his long arms over and over again. "Stop that, Jack." Jack placed his arms at his sides with an angry huff, one which his mother quickly echoed. "I trust everything's to my specifications?"

"Down to the very last molecule, my dear." Finklestein leveled out with a slight grunt, braking in front of the two royal skeletons. "Shall we step into the kitchen?"

"In a moment, please." Mallory took a moment to adjust the brim of her hat. "Jack, these are the potions that allow us to cast heavy fogs on Halloween night."

Jack only rolled his eyes. "I know."

Mallory switched her handbag to her other hand, straightening her belt with the free one. "They will be weak tonight, but we just test the batch immediately after they have decanted to test their potency."

"I know," said Jack, his face growing more empty and his voice more flat.

Dr. Finklestein snarled, and Mallory brought her hand back to her purse. "After that, we must ferment how long they must ferment before they are strong enough to use for Halloween."

"I," said Jack with all the lilt of a falling rock, "Know."

It was quiet in the room for a while, the Doctor and the Queen simply eyeing the not-so-young-anymore Prince, waiting for him to apologize or show interest or simply stop staring at them. The not-so-young-anymore Prince returned their glares like a mirror, refolding his arms in defiance.

"Fine!" Mallory snapped. "Stay out of our way. I'll call you when we leave."

Jack left before she had finished speaking, ascending the ramp with a few long, frustrated strides. Mallory tried her best to hide her face without looking like it, even as the Doctor gave her a hard glare.

"Your son," he growled, "Will ruin this holiday for all of us if he doesn't start acting like a king."

"You don't have a child. You wouldn't understand." Mallory spoke with a cold fury, words carefully rehearsed within the confines of her skull many a time. "He's simply in a rebellious stage right now."

"He has been 'in a rebellious stage' since he was a small boy!" Finklestein barked. "He's a grown monster, Mallory! He's three times taller than you!"

Mallory nodded in agreement out of habit. "And he still thinks he knows more than the rest of us simply because he reads. This year, he will be out with the other monsters, and he will realize the difference between theory and practice, and then his arrogance problem will be solved."

"It's that year already?" Doctor Finklestien mockingly asked.

Mallory stiffened almost imperceptibly, ending the conversation. "The potions, Doctor."

* * *

Jack reached for the door to the lab, automatically picking the lock with his pinky when it refused to open for him. The nerve of his mother, telling him about the stupid fog potions again. He'd heard about the fog potions every year for the past 800 years, he knew how they worked. He pulled the heavy door open just enough to slip through, shutting it behind him out of habit.

The nerve of her. As if she knew more than he did. He knew everything she did! He'd learned everything she did by the time he was 500, well through puberty and into his adulthood, and she still believed she had to repeat every little thing she'd ever said to him for his entire life! The nerve of that woman! He scanned the doctor's desk absently, looking for anything interesting.

He found something interesting, a welcome change from the Doctor's usual fare. From the little bits of flesh and tissue, Doctor Finklestein had just finished putting the finishing touches on a monster. Jack stood at his full height, scanning the room and spotting the monster on the Revitalization Table, stirring slightly under the heavy lead blanket. Poor thing didn't even look like it could lift it off its head. Jack felt a cold wave of sympathy and immediately rushed to the table, pulling the blanket off the monster to reveal... a sheet. With a huff, Jack tugged the sheet away.

It was... cute. The monster took only a moment, waiting for its enormous eyes to focus, before it gazed back up into Jack's eye sockets with an adorable kinked smile. The beast was much more symmetrical than the Doctor's usual creations, lacking Igor's ungainly hump and mismatched limbs. The skin was a nice shade of drowned blue, with long red hair and-

Jack pulled the sheet back over the waking woman, averting his eyes a little less than instantly. A cold dread settled into Jack's rib cage. "Sorry."

"It's okay. I couldn't breathe." The monster turned onto her side, pulling the sheet up around her shoulders. "Why do you have clothes and I don't?"

A few answers having to do with the Doctor's scruples passed through his mind, but if Jack told her, she'd probably tell Finklestein, and there went that business deal... Jack kept his focus on a petrified foot sitting on a shelf on the far side of the room. "I have no idea."

"Oh well!" she chirped, not in the least bothered by the situation. "I'll get some later."

With that, she hopped off the table and fell onto the floor in a squishy heap.

Jack felt himself moving before he could tell himself not to, helping the lady back onto her tiny feet using as little of his hand as possible to hold her. After a few attempts at getting her to stand using only his fingertips, all of them ending with her either teetering backwards or falling onto Jack's chest (on accident, he swore to all of the people he'd have to explain this to in the future), the Prince finally figured "Too hell with decency, I have to help this woman" and held her steady by her forearms.

"I feel off-kilter."

Jack was trying too hard not to stare at anything other than her face to be snarky. "I think the Doctor made your feet too small."

The woman took a look at Jack's feet, comparing them to her own. "Your feet are as small as mine!"

"Yes, but I don't have-" Wonderful curves, nice tits, huge tracks of land, gorgeous little hips- Oh, how hard Jack had to work to stop himself from saying something bad. Instead, he squeezed her arms lightly, feeling a mite surprised when she crinkled like a sack of leaves. "This."

Surprisingly, the woman seemed happy with his explanation, face registering her satisfaction. "Oh. Okay."

She evidently felt no need to pursue any further conversation, instead using Jack as a balance as she firmly stroked her legs, attempting to get more of whatever filling she had into her legs for stability. Jack felt himself growing slightly giddy, cheeks burning and spine starting to shiver ever-so-quietly. He knew it wasn't just the nudity of the situation that was making him nervous. He'd had a few flings in the past, all of them dwindling to nothing once his mother learned they weren't advantageous in any way. There was something deeper going on here; he felt... excited, in a non-physical kind of way.

"I need your other arm."

Automatically, Jack gave her the arm that had fallen to his side for lack of something better to do. The lady switched her hands and began repeating the process on her other leg. She seemed so... unaffected by this whole thing.

Jack gasped. The lady looked up.

"What's wrong?"

Seized by joy, Jack took both her arms and pulled her close enough to hug, forgetting the naked. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"I don't know who _I _am, sir," she responded plainly.

This was fantastic! She was a total blank slate, a opportunity to introduce himself to someone who didn't already know who he was! He was trembling, he could hear his bones rattling, and he just didn't care! She didn't care, and it was wonderful!

"This is marvelous!"

The lady only blinked, her little mouth quirking into a confused frown. "It is?"

"Of course it is! Now I can tell you who I am!"

"Who are you, then?"

"I!" Jack backed away with a flourish, posing himself as proudly as he could. "Am Jack Skelloh no!"

The lady fell sideways this time due to her unbalanced legs, slamming against the bed and pulling the sheets off with her as she slipped to the floor. Jack wasted no time in picking her up again, unconsciously wrapping the sheet around her in a half-apology. "I'm so sorry! I forgot about your leg!"

"I did, too." She shook her head, throwing her long hair behind her shoulders again. "You're Jack?"

"Jack Skellington, yes." Jack found himself wrapping Sally tighter into her sheet, throwing the leftover edge over her right shoulder. "Do you have a name yet?"

The lady pursed her lips in thought; adorably so, if Jack said so himself, and he did! "The man who was sewing me together called me lots of things, but I don't think they were names..."

Jack stomped that curl of disgust deep in his stomach before it could reach the unbridled happy in his chest. "It doesn't matter, you'll do fine without it for now."

"Okay!" The lady looked over his shoulder and out the window. "Hey, do you want to go outside?"

"I would love to go outside, but first-" Jack backed away slightly, letting the lady adjust her legs until she could stand comfortably. "Let's fix your clothes problem, shall we?"

Jack dashed to the Doctor's desk and rifled about in his drawers, finding notebooks and miscellaneous scraps of paper (one piece of paper including a list of names, all of which had been scratched out) and pens and different lengths of wire and finally, FINALLY, a straight pin. Leaping back to the lady, he pinned the sheet into a makeshift toga, admiring his handiwork as it hung off of Sally's curves like bed curtain. "Isn't that better?"

The lady pulled a face. "I feel like a window."

"Um... all right, then!" Jack felt an urge and simply acted upon it; he brought his fingers up to either side of the lady's head and brushed back her hair. The lady responded with a light blush and a giggle, and Jack's ego soared through the roof. "Come on, I'll show you Doctor Finklestein's library. Maybe we can find someone to name you after."

* * *

"It will be just a moment, your highness," pleaded the Doctor, wary of his Queen's gaze boring into his back. "I stowed the recipe away in the 'How to Identify Poisonous Spiders' book. Just a quick glance, an- WHAT IS THIS?"

Mallory scooted past the Doctor to survey the tiny library. Inside, her son was balanced precariously on a stack of books taller than he was, held steady by a blue woman wrapped in a bed sheet. Her son jumped, only just managing to not fall, while the woman spotted her and waved.

Jack blurted, "She was awake when I got to the lab, I didn't do anything."

"She looks like you!" said the blue woman. "Is she your mother?"

"She is! You're so smart, darling!" Jack gestured to the blue woman. "Who is this?"

The Doctor pounded the armrest of his chair in anger. "She is not supposed to be walking around the house in a bed sheet!"

The woman chuckled. "My name's really long."

"And with a sense of humor, Doctor!" Jack positively gushed, leaping down to the ground and displaying Sally to his mother. "At this age! It's your best work yet!"

Doctor Finklestein felt the beginnings of an aneurism building, or maybe that was just rage, before Queen Mallory suddenly cleared her throat.

"For what purpose did you make this monster, Doctor?"

The lady glanced back and forth between Jack and the Queen. "Purpose?"

Jack hid his discomfort as best she could behind a laugh. "Um, just... don't worry too much about it."

"She's simply a maid and cook, your highness," said the Doctor with a sickeningly sweet sound that made every word feel like a cyanide pill dipped in honey. "She will take care of basic chores for me, and I'll have more time to fulfill my duties."

"That doesn-"

Jack began to tremble again, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious as a member of the royal family. "Um, why don't we go upstairs to the observatory, look at the stars?"

"You will receive a demerit on your town record and half your pay deducted for the next month, but you are allowed to keep the monster." Mallory set her shoulders and turned, signaling Jack to follow. "Come, Jack, it's time for dinner."

"I, uh..."

Jack sighed and gave the lady a parting hug. "I'll see you later."

Confused, but not looking too upset, Sally nodded. "Bye, Jack."

* * *

"... and she already knows how to read!" Jack said through a mouthful of food. Mallory smiled warmly, placing more potatos au rotten on her son's plate. "The Doctor's outdone himself this time!"

The Pumpkin Queen giggled, placing her clean plate in the kitchen sink. "Did you do anything to her?" Mallory asked with fake innocence.

Jack burned, the last remnant of blushing he had left. "Um... I taught her to stand, dressed her in a sheet, and spent 20 minutes looking at old Fear's catalogues to find her a dress."

"Well, then. Good boy." Mallory waited until Jack had finished eating before scooping up the half-full plate of food. "When we go back, I'd like you to speak with her again. You seem to get along well."

"We do! It was-"

"You can even teach her a skill we can use for the next Halloween celebration. We need more seamtresses, farmers for the pumpkin patch, and pyrotechnicians. Try to guide her in one of those directions, if you can."

Jack felt as if his mother had simply reached into his ribs and plucked out his happiness like a broken vertebrae. Actually, pulling out a vertebrae would probably been less jarring than that statement. Startled into silence, Jack let Mallory give him a kiss on the forehead and excuse herself to stoke a fire in Jack's room.

"... well, then..." Jack shrugged and nodded to the dog. "What do you say we say 'Screw that' to that plan, eh?"

The dog barked.


	2. Chapter 2

Pillars, Chapter 2

The title is weird, I know. It's a reference to being a Pillar of the Community.

* * *

The witches couldn't believe their eyes when the young lady walked straight up to them asking where Jack lived. Something about her didn't quite add up. She was dressed like an escort, but she was obviously one of Finklestien's monsters, and he never put that much effort into how one of his monsters looked. She called the Pumpkin King by his first name, but she was obviously very young and shouldn't be so familiar with him. She was quiet, polite, respectful, but she obviously had no sense of royalty because she walked straight up to the front door of the Skellington mansion and banged on it with her first calling "Jaaack! JAAAACK! I need your help with something!"

To add to their confusion, Jack answered the door straight away and welcomed her in with open arms.

One witch said to the other, "They've found each other" and the other witch said, "I agree", but they didn't quite remember which one said what first.

* * *

"Oh Sally, your dress..." It hugged her curves, accented her hips, added a little weight to her with its horizontal stripes, dulled her nature color with its bland black-and-white palette-

Sally scowled. "I hate it."

Jack nodded. "I agree."

"I want to fix it."

"Fix it- fix it?" Jack stuttered. "How?"

Sally fidgeted- scratch that, she was trying to walk in that too-tight abomination towards the stairs. "You have a mother, so you must have a sewing machine. I'm going to let the seams out a little."

Jack walked directly behind her, unconsciously following her back with his hands to keep her from falling. "It could use a little color, too," he stated. Someone such a cute shade of blue should have a little more variety in their palette. Jack was simply doomed to always look stunning in black and white, but Sally needed every bit of color Jack could throw at her. "A nice purple, maybe."

Sally stopped just before the stairs. "Your ramp is broken."

The house shook with laughter.

* * *

As much as Jack wanted to help more, Sally had stripped nearly-naked to work on her dress, and he didn't want anybody to see the both of them through his mother's window and make assumptions. He resigned himself to sitting on the other side of the craft room door, looking through a basket of about-to-be-thrown-away clothes that his mother no longer cared for and picking out the ones-

"I need a red."

- that Sally asked him for. He slipped a red-and-pink striped sarong through the crack in the door. "Will this do?"

"Yes."

All of the commands had been short, clipped, but not rude. Sally was in The Zone. Jack understood very well. He settled onto his hips, seating the box between his legs and sorting the clothes into the primary colors.

"The Doctor is strange."

Jack jumped. It was the first thing Sally had said since she started that wasn't a request for a color. It was quiet... soft. Shy. "Howso?"

"He keeps asking me to stay in his lab and talk to him." Jack placed his "ear" to the door. Sally was just barely speaking over the motor of the machine. "Then he gets mad if I ask him questions... Jack?"

"Yes, Sally."

"Am I stupid?"

She had to ask the hard questions. Even as Jack struggled for just the right answered, he spoke. "No no no, Sally, not at all. You are in no way stupid. Stupid..." He wrung his knuckles. "... implies an inability to learn. No, you, Sally, are 'uneducated', which is understandable. You are only three days old."

Sally responded a bit louder, the shy tone chased away and replaced by curiousity. Jack rejoiced in his mind; he half-expected Sally to bite his head off for a statement like that. How little he knew of this woman! How wonderful! What a mystery to be solved! "How do I get educated?"

"You read books."

"I don't have time to read..." answered Sally. "I spend all day either cooking or cleaning or-"

"Or listening to The Doctor and stroking his ego, how nice of him. Sally!" Jack was struck with such a wonderful idea that his hands flew up from the laundry basket, launching one of his mother's girdle laces directly into his eye socket. "Ow!"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It's all fine." Slowly he worked the lace out of his eye socket, crimeny that hurt, and quickly he said, "Sally, when you are done with your alterations, I am going to come to your house and cook YOU dinner. How does that sound?"

"And The Doctor!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yes, for The Doctor, too."

"That sounds perfect! I'm done right now!"

"O- oh! Um-"

There were petticoats in the door jamb. There were slips on the steps. There was a bustle on the banister. "I might... need to clean a little, first. Before we leave."

The door opened behind him, and Jack fell backwards. He landed at Sally's feet, looking up at his little patchwork angel, decked in mismatched colors and heavy stitches, her legs free to wiggle and wobble as much as they needed to, her chest covered and hanging naturally.

Sally pumped her fist in victory. "I can help." It wasn't an offer. It was a declaration.

* * *

"Sally! When is di-" Doctor Finklestien stopped the second the plate hit the counter, and he stared for a moment. "... what is this?"

"It's a sandwich!" Sally chirped. "Jack made it!"

Said Pumpkin Prince practically danced by the doorway carrying a cauldron. He crooned in a happy sing-song voice. "I'm making pumpkin pie next!"

"... ... indeed." Finklestien gave his creation a hard look. "... ... ... and the dress?"

"I tried to alter it." Sally shrugged. She hadn't tried too hard, but she had tried. "But I messed it up, so I threw it away and made a new one!"

Jack pranced back by the other way, with a cauldron full of pumpkin, still singing. "She did a great job!"

"I _did_ do a great job!" Sally countered. "So as a reward, Jack made dinner today-"

"And desseeeert!"

"So I could stay upstairs and read some books!" Sally clapped her hands together. "I learned Jack was a prince today! Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"... ... ..." Finklestien simply turned back to the microscope.

This was going to be a long year.


	3. Chapter 3

Pillars, Chapter 3

I'm very sorry for the very OC-heavy... everything of this chapter, but Mallory decided she wanted a song and some character development. Please give me feedback on her, I'm doing my best to make her well-rounded so she can contribute to Jack's character development.

* * *

The Skellingtons were there when he opened the door, Jack looking happy yet distant and Mallory sporting the most wicked grin. Finklestien felt a tremor of apprehension run down what was left of his spine, and he forced his face to look extra happy.

"Mallory, Jack, good mo-"

Sally's door swung open, hitting the wall behind it, making the entire tower ring like an oversized church bell. The Skellingtons stood their ground, bones rattling and coming a bit undone with the vibrations. Finklestien clamped his mouth shut, experiencing the most horrible (in the bad way) itching sensation in the cores of his teeth. Chipper, happy, oblivious little Sally leaned over the railing of the stairs and waved. "Hello!"

"Sally!" Jack cried back, collecting himself before his mother and running up to join Sally in her room. "Good morning! How are you?"

"I just figured out how to make the cape have little wing membranes like you wanted!" answered Sally. "Come in and see!"

They disappeared to Sally's room, chatting excitedly about Jack's Halloween costume.

Mallory stayed, looking so wonderfully prideful and royal in her little gray dress, covered from neck to ground in the finest of fabrics and tailoring, nothing short of royal sophistication. It was nearly unbearable. Finklestien had known her when she was young, before being a mother, before being Queen, before she bound herself so tightly in bustles and girdles and gloves that the only visible bones on her were her skull and three topmost vertebrae. He remembered those days all too clearly. To see her so full of herself, so cut off, made him secretly sick to his stomach.

Mallory's grin grew wider. "So. How are you enjoying child rearing, Finklestien?"

By her every word, it seemed she, herself, remembered none of it.

It seemed this is what today's "I'm better than you" conversation was going to be about. Finklestien had to give credit where she had earned it, though, and though it was bitter, he swallowed his pride. "I'm not. Sally is a problem child."

Mallory finally stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. "Really? Problem child? Worse than my Jack?"

"Certainly not!" snapped Finklestien. "Sally is not an inattentive, prideful little snit like your son."

A wave of hatred flowed from Mallory, and the room grew deathy cold. Finklestien gasped, realizing what he just said, and quickly corrected, "She's simply... stupid, and loud, your grace. She never shuts up. Always asking questions and correcting you if she thinks you're wrong. ME, wrong! Imagine."

"Oh yes," Mallory sneered, "Because you're never wrong about anything."

Finklestien fumed in his seat. Admitting anything less that perfect in his creations always hurt, but royal punishment could be far, far worse... He grappled for an even ground in the conversation. "She simply needs teaching. A few more years in-"

"I don't want a few more years." Mallory intruded. "I want her ready by this Halloween. She will participate with the rest of us."

"But- What? This year?" Finklestien screamed. "She's a baby! She's MY baby!"

"And I won't let her fall behind."

Like your son, Finklestien finished in his mind. In a way, though, he could see the connection. Even now, he could hear Jack and Sally chirping upstairs like someone... well, half Jack's age, and twice Sally's age, or something, but still very very young, he'd do that math later. As much as he hated it, they did get along. If Sally participated this year, then Jack would too, finally ending Jack's very late blooming period.

Finklestien had to say his peace, though. "I can teach her nothing... about scaring."

His voice lowered, and he wheeled his chair close to Mallory. "Those days are long behind me."

For the first time in a long time, Mallory met Finklestien's eyes not with anger, not with pity, but with understanding. "I know. The accident. I'll teach her."

Finklestien asked, "You? Personally?"

"Me personally. One last little favor, for you." The Pumpkin Queen ducked her face, hiding behind the wide brim of her hat. "If I may have her for the evening."

"Take her! It'll be nice to have some quiet in the house for once." Finklestien bowed the best he could. "Thank you... your majesty."

* * *

"Sally, as a member of Halloween Town, you will be expected to perform every duty you are assigned to the best of your abilities." Mallory did not break her admittedly tiny stride to wait for a response, instead letting Jack and Sally trail along behind her. "Your complete compliance and cooperation is necessary to keep the town running smoothly, understood?"

"She's said that three times already," Sally whispered to Jack, "Should I tell her?"

Jack whispered back, "She just likes to talk. Say 'Yes ma'am' a lot and let her about her business."

Sally answered, "Yes, ma'am."

"Every person in Halloween Town has their specific duties." Mallory pointed to each citizen as they wound past. She weaved in and through the crowd, having memorized their personal routines and pathways from centuries of observation. "The Behemoth tends the Pumpkins, the vampires concoct fireworks and serve as town sentries. Even the children have their purpose, assisting those adults until they choose an apprenticeship. Understood?"

There was no response. Mallory finally stopped and turned around.

Sally had gotten caught in the spoke of a passing wagon, and Jack was simultaneously untangling Sally's leg from the axle and making cheerful small talk with the owner, the Werewolf.

"Stop that!"

Everyone, even the wheelbarrow, jumped at Mallory's abrupt shout. Sally's leg came cleanly off, finally falling free from the wheelbarrow once it was released from her body weight. Jack was practically about to laugh himself apart.

Mallory growled, jamming Sally's leg into the doll's arms and forcing her upright. (Sally fell back onto Jack for support, using him as an impromptu crutch.) "This is no time for frivolity! With Halloween only a month away, we have to work every minute to make sure it is complete on time! We must be efficient! We must be dignified! And we must not intercourse our legs with wagon wheels! Understood?"

Jack snickered. "Intercourse."

Sally nodded, cradling her severed leg, not quite following. "Yes, ma'am."

Mallory sighed. "Sally, I know you have a lot to learn over the next month. It will be your first Halloween-" (Jack stuttered, "Wait a minute-") "-and I want you to be more than just another bit player in this most wonderful occasion. I want you to become someone important."

Sally... felt something... change. Something in the town seemed to fall into a light rhythm, a bouncy one that felt a lot like walking up a set of stairs. She clung to Jack and watched him, looking for answers. He met her eyes with his sockets and rolled them just a tiny bit, focusing his attention back on Mallory. Sally looked back to Jack's mother; she had taken up perch on top of a small wall.

She sang.

_"To be a pillar of the community_

_Is to be stalwart and upright."_

_(She held her hand aloft proudly.)_

_"It is to lead with an air of authority_

_And to make everything just right._

(Sally looked back to Jack again, just to be certain. He nodded; Mallory had just stopped to sing a little song. Mallory continued, unaware that Jack was apathetic and Sally was confused, only knowing that the town was beginning to fall into her song.)

_"It is to make Halloween a priority_

_In every moment, every day;_

_And if you stay the course_

_And you succeed without recourse,_

_Then you will always have your way!"_

The townspeople swarmed around their queen, lifting her and carrying her above their heads by her tiny little feet, singing along in perfect pitch.

_"It is the way we're meant to be!_

_Cogs in the great machine,_

_We help Our Lady to succeed!_

_Oh, Hail the Pumpkin Queen,_

_The Pillar of our Community!"_

Somehow, during the Queen-worshipping dance, Mallory had drifted back to directly in front of Sally. Held at eye-level by her townspeople, Mallory punctuated her statements with sharp pokes to Sally's nose.

_"To be a pillar of the community,_

_You will be graceful, strong, and poised._

_You will refrain from mishaps and frivolities."_

(Mallory poked Sally's loose leg, making the little doll (and Jack) flinch in sympathetic pain.)

_"You will refrain from useless noise."_

("Yes, ma'am, bu-" Sally's protest went unheeded.)

_"You will make your duties a priority,_

_And how to always do them well._

_When you are fin'lly seen_

_On this glorious Halloween,_

_I want for everyone to tell-"_

_"That you're a pillar of the community,_" the townspeople sang,

_"A lady of great taste and tact."_

_"A person of true grace,_" added Mallory,

_"Who never looses face,_

_And this also goes for** Jack**._"

(Jack blanched at the thought, but Sally couldn't quite find the presence of mind to smile at that.)

_"You will be proud and strong and reliable_

_And you will never let us down!"_ sang the townspeople. They finally let Queen Mallory down, on top of the town fountain, where she puffed out her chest and sang to her people.

_"And everyone will see_

_What a treasure you can be_

_When your philosophy_

_Is to be-"_

_"A pillar of the community_!" The townspeople held that final note, raising in pitch and finishing off in a strong crescendo.

Sally nodded, stunned. "Yes, ma'am!"

Jack simply groused, "Can we reattach her leg before her stuffing rots, please?"

Mallory growled in frustration and stormed off into the crowd.

The townspeople had dispersed back into their own duties. Jack lead Sally into an alley, brightly lit but outside of the town's traffic, seating her on a step so she could sew her leg back on. They stayed remarkably quiet, considering the pair of them together in a secluded place. Jack only remarked once that she had wooden sticks instead of bones, and then stayed silent. He seemed so very... angry. Not at her, but it still unsettled Sally to see her cheerful friend so upset.

"That was... very strange."

Jack didn't respond to her immediately; he was politely holding Sally's skirt back so she could sew her leg back on without sewing herself to her dress. From her seat right beside him, Sally could feel the anger coming off of Jack in tiny waves, like the ripples in the lake. She didn't press him, staying quiet and sticking to her work until she was almost done.

"Jack..." she nearly couldn't speak, her words forced into a delicate whisper by her nervousness. "D-does everyone here sing?"

Jack snapped out of his trance, shaking his head with a soft rattle. "Sorry about that."

"Okay."

"Yes, everybody sings. It's what-" Jack stopped, then looked at Sally very hard in the face. "The Doctor never explained that to you, I'm guessing."

"No."

"That bastard. Also, Mother put your nose out of joint." Jack pulled on it just slightly, making Sally giggle, and finally smiled again. "That bastard."

Sally gave Jack a long hug. "You're funny."

"And you're adorable, but let's not get distracted." Jack pulled Sally away, "placing" her in her seat and standing up to be in Fancy Teacher Mode. "Singing is a way of life here in Halloween. Singing is a group occassion, a solitary pondering of thoughts, a declaration of intent! It is everything and everywhere, all at once!"

Sally cocked her head. "But how did everyone know the words?"

"Nobody knows!" Jack exclaimed with glee. "That's why it's so fantastic!"

Sally cocked her head the other way, and Jack nearly squealed at how cute it was. "What about science?"

"Science can't explain absolutely everything, Sally. Sometimes we just have to appreciate what we don't understand." Jack touched the center of Sally's forehead gently. He was mostly making stuff up on the spot; nobody had ever explained the singing to him, it was always just something that happened. But it was worth spouting poetic nonsense if it made Sally's eyes glow like that. "Remember that forever." Because he sure wouldn't.

Sally nodded. "Why didn't I know the words?"

"Well, you can't really know all the words until you sing your first song." Jack splayed out his fingers. "It will simply come to you one day, from deep in your heart, and then suddenly you'll know all of the right words to say and when to say them."

"Thank you, Jack!" Sally chirped. "And so will you!"

That little statement nearly killed him on his feet. Sally was just learning about her first song, and she had already grasped that Jack hadn't had his yet. He was nearly a millenium behind his peers. There were young children in town who had their first songs within a few years of their birth. And here he was, a prince, an adult, without a word to say for himself.

Sally stood up and hugged him, not tightly but... comfortingly.

"Your first song," he whispered. "Will be beautiful."

"Yours, too." Sally cooed. "Don't worry."

He didn't deserve a good friend like Sally.

His mother was not going to ruin her like she was trying to "train" him.

"Sally, ignore everything my mother said about today," Jack finally said. "Pillar of the Community be damned. You don't have to be wholeheartedly dedicated to anything."

Sally pulled a face.

"That... came out wrong." Jack backspaced a bit. "You don't have to be wholeheartedly dedicated to anything unless you want to. And you can do it however you want! Make unnecessary sounds! Trip over wheelbarrows! It doesn't matter!" Sally laughed at that, so he continued. "Trip over all the wheelbarrows! It doesn't matter! Do what makes you happy, because _that's_ what matters!"

Why did some of Jack's best personal revelations come whenever he was just trying to make Sally smile?


End file.
